Secret Teacher: I’m fleeing the UK to find work-life balance

The latest Secret Teacher, writing in the Guardian, says teachers are better off leaving the country for greener grass elsewhere…

…I’m just over a year into my career as a qualified teacher and I’ve stopped seeing my friends because I don’t have time. I also haven’t been able to hold down a relationship – the previous people I dated haven’t understood the commitments that come with a 24/7 job. My non-teacher friends say things like, “don’t you get lots of holiday? There can’t be that much work”…

That’s why I recently decided to leave England to teach abroad. I have now been offered a position in a school in the Middle East starting in the next few months.

I am not alone. The murmurs of people saying they want to teach abroad have always been there, but the voices seem to be getting louder. Within a year, three friends have embarked on a new life overseas and none of them, so far, have come back…

I don’t want to look back on a lifetime of regret. While there are still a few months before I start my adventure, I haven’t felt this excited in a long time. I feel as if I’ll finally have a chance of getting back who I am. My life is not just about producing results for the school I work in, it’s about so much more. Until the UK government realises that all teachers need a good work-life balance, we are better off out of here…

We regularly hear comments of newly qualified teachers moving straight overseas – does this article sum up their thinking and why it is happening?

Is it perhaps just inevitable that many will go, perhaps as a way of getting paid while travelling overseas instead of the traditional gap year now university fees are so high?

Or is this a significant threat of a teacher ‘brain drain’?

Please share your feedback and insights in the comments or via Twitter…

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